First of all I have to say I have the most wonderful husband ever!! This weekend is the weekend I would normally be at the scrapbook retreat with my scrappy friends but didn't go this time because originally we thought we'd have just gotten back from an Israel trip, but then we found out I was preggo and scratched that plan as well - which brings me to my wonderful husband, who spent all day today working around the house so I could have the day to just sit home and scrap!! It's been the most productive I've been at home ever!! So here's my first layout today:
Last summer we had my scrappy friend Kara and her family over for some mini front yard fireworks, sparklers, glow necklaces and later sundaes for dessert! Um I just remember it was the HOTTEST day EVER, it was hard to breathe out there the humidity was so thick, so the sundaes were my favorite part!
The inspiration for this layout came from this
layout and video tutorial by corej on twopeasinabucket.com, I just loved the rainbow colors! I knew it was going to take awhile to stamp and emboss all those stamps, so after I finished the red, orange, and yellow stamps (over the course of a few evenings earlier this week), I decided I better chose my photos, paper, and placement of items so I could reduce how much stamping I had to do instead of filling the whole page and covering most of it up... that ended up being a HUGE timesaver!
The other side of this layout I actually made and posted 3 days after these pics were taken (
here), yikes that it took me this long to finish these pics, but it helped me pick some of the papers and letter thickers from the same kit, Elmwood Park by Studio Calico, to match the other side!
This next layout was from the Lilac Festival last spring, when Chris dragged me out to go see Lou Gramm (from Foreigner) perform!
OK this cut I made on the Silhouette looks "simple" enough, except that it took me a LONG time to make because all I had was a misting mask to start with! I scanned it against a dark background paper and then spent probably 45 minutes editing it so it could be traced and made into a cut file! I was desperate though, I already wasted a piece of paper trying to mist first, and the misting just looked awful (first tried white, which didn't show up at all against such a busy paper, then tried sunset, which just looked way too orange and still didn't show up great), so that die-cut was a lot more painstaking than it looks!
Beyond that I wasn't really sure what else to do until I happened upon
this layout by Catherine Davis for Studio Calico and decided to use the lengthwise format.
So I used the mask for its intended use, added that Amy Tangerine Yes Please camera rub-on and the woodgrain thickers and done!
Sadly, I started this layout last November prior to heading to the November scrapbook retreat, intending to get a head start on a layout and finishing it while I was there - except I forgot to bring anything else from that Abroad line by Studio Calico with me, so I had nothing that matched to finish it! So I finally got around to finishing it today!
We had gone to NYC last June, and I just had these last pics to finish that short weekend trip. I just LOVED
this layout by Geralyn Sy for Studio Calico and knew I wanted to use my polaroid stamp to do something similar!
I used the Amy Tangerine embroidery kit to sew the buildings outline along the bottom of the page! The washi tape went perfectly as well as those thickers from the Front Row kit by Studio Calico, but my favorite touch was very subtle...
This may make me seem crazy but the mini envelope was really baffling me - I didn't want it to be open, but I also didn't want just a flat closed envelope... like I said, it's very subtle, but I added two small pop dots just inside the flap and poppped up just that part! I love how it came out!
